This invention relates, generally, to a compact system for the manufacture of soft goods having intricate curved configurations and more particularly, to a one-piece blank or pattern for forming soft toys, such as stuffed animals, or portions thereof which provide maximum economy in the cutting and utilization of fabric material as well as in the labor involved in seaming the blank. Although the following describes the invention in terms of the system for the manufacturing of soft or stuffed toys, it is understood that the present invention is not so limited, but may also be used in the manufacture of other soft goods having intricate curved configuration.
Heretofore, in the manufacture of stuffed toys of the three dimensional type, such as, for example, stuffed animals, separate fabric blanks have been cut, each corresponding to a separate portion of the toy. For example, in the manufacture of a stuffed dog, separate blanks have been cut for each leg (paw), for the body, for each ear and for the tail. The cutting of such blanks is usually accomplished by single dies or ganged dies comprising a series of dies welded together. Such dies require spacing of at least approximately one-quarter inch between each die in order to avoid pressure points which would inhibit a clean cut of the fabric material. This die cutting approach also required all acute angles on each pattern to be formed on the outside of the pattern, among other things.
Upon cutting the plurality of patterns corresponding to each portion of the stuffed toy, each toy portion must then be individually formed by seaming and appropriately joined to each other. The toy is then reversed or turned out and stuffed. At this time whenever a seam occurs, the fabric material must be brushed in order to hide such seam. When the toy requires many seams, the brushing operation becomes quite time consuming. For example, to form a stuffed animal of the type illustrated in FIG. 3b by conventional methods requires at least fifteen individual pieces and fifteen seams as compared with 1 piece and 8 seams for the present invention.
In addition to the inordinate labor required in the construction of a stuffed toy according to conventional methods, much of the fabric material from which the blanks are cut is wasted due to the fact that the separate blanks each have a configuration which does not permit their being layed out in an efficient manner on the fabric. Thus, it is not uncommon to find a relatively large amount of wasted fabric between two or more blanks in a particular layout.
Accordingly, it can be seen that the assembly of stuffed toys has heretofore resulted in much wasted fabric material as well as the necessity for time consuming labor operations required from the large number of rather intricate sewing operations.